Two affiliated paving materials companies in Canton Township admit no wrongdoing, but will pay more than $3.8 million to settle allegations that they obtained credits on government contracts through the use of a vendor who did no work.

Cadillac Asphalt LLC and Michigan Paving and Materials Co., both of Canton, will make the payment to resolve allegations they obtained invalid credits on several federally funded transportation construction projects, under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.

Cadillac and Michigan Paving, both subsidiaries of Atlanta-based Oldcastle Materials Inc., reached the agreement this week with the U.S. Department of Justice in an investigation dating back at least to 2008.

The DBE program allows contracts to get credits toward obtaining federal funds on projects if they engage businesses that are owned or majority-owned by women or minorities.

Justice officials had alleged the two Canton companies had claimed to use asphalt supplied by Detroit-based BN&M Trucking Inc. as a disadvantaged business enterprise. But BN&M Trucking was “merely a pass-through company that did not supply any asphalt or perform any other commercially useful function,” Justice said in a statement Thursday.

The settlement covers several Michigan construction projects between 2006 and 2010, including a construction project at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in 2008 and 2009. Clinton Township-based John Carlo Inc. and Warren-based Angelo Iafrate Construction Co. Inc. in late 2010 paid more than $1 million to resolve similar claims stemming from the airport runway project.

Gregg Campbell, president of Michigan Paving and Materials and secretary-treasurer of the Asphalt Paving Association of Michigan, said in a statement this week that the company is pleased the matter has been settled, but that the companies admit no wrongdoing or liability in the agreement.

For the contractors to meet their DBE participation goal, a DBE employed by the contractors must be independently responsible for performing a portion of the work with its own employees and equipment.

BN&M Trucking owner Benjamin Marshall agreed last July to pay a separate civil settlement of $12,000, to settle allegations he certified performing work under the disadvantaged enterprise program when he had not. The work instead was done by “a non-DBE subcontractor and/or the prime contractor in violation of the DBE regulations and the False Claims Act,” according to a statement from the U.S. Office of Inspector General.

Michigan Paving in a written statement this week said BN&M had been certified by the Michigan Department of Transportation as a disadvantaged enterprise liquid asphalt dealer, and it began using the company in 1999.